Government – Efficient Energy Use

According to a publication in Alliance to Save Energy, the federal government is in fact the nation’s largest buyer and greatest energy consumer. Federal government uses about 1.6 percent of all energy consumptions in the United States; while the number seems small, the total cost that taxpayers have to pay reaches 24.5 billion each year. A considerable amount of federal government’s energy consumption goes to operating the facilities and buildings. Using the electricity wisely does not always mean improving lighting systems and telling all employees to unplug all adapters. Those play their roles in energy efficiency indeed but the government should also address the biggest culprit of them: the constantly running cooling system in their buildings.

Lead by Example

Solar panel is probably the best idea for energy sustainability, because you reduce the use of conventional fuel although you do not actually minimize electricity consumption. Federal government even offers incentives and tax exemption for those who install and use solar panels. The government has the power to grant financial benefit in their energy efficient campaign, but it is probably better if they lead by examples. On the other hand, installing solar panel in all federal government’s buildings is going to be a challenge, because there are at least 500,000 of them all over the country. The cost to upgrade to solar-generated electricity will be too expensive as it requires plenty of changes in buildings structure and wiring system. Let us not forget that the government needs to always have a running electric power and while solar panels are promising, they are not entirely reliable to generate enough power to keep all devices and appliances on.

As mentioned earlier, improvement in cooling system is a wise move. Based on the data provided by Energy.gov, heating & cooling system consumes about 48 percent of energy usage in a typical house in United States. Almost half of all energy usage goes for this system only, making it the biggest energy expense. If a regular house uses that much power, a government building almost certainly uses more. Considering there are more than half a million government facilities throughout the country, the amount of potential saving from efficient cooling system should bring profound effects to energy efficiency campaign.

Cooling System Upgrade

To keep the power continuously running in government building, solar panel is too risky as an upgrade. However, a proper upgrade in cooling system will make immediate effect without a major overhaul in buildings structure.

IceCOLD® is an efficiency-oriented technology that uses synthetic formula to improve both operational performance and heat exchange. Formulated using only non-toxic and non-hazardous materials as catalyst, the cooling system will be able to evaporate refrigerant at lower temperature, allowing it to reach set-point more quickly, hence energy-saving.